My 1st 3XS System - Raptor or SSD?

[ITB1981]

Hi All

Just thought I would share my excitement at ordering my 1st 3XS system

Top Headline Set Up (won't bore you with the non essentials!)

Case: Silverstone TJ09B-W Black Aluminium Full Tower Case inc Side Window
CPU: Intel i7 920 2.66GHz 4.8GT s QPI 8MB Cache Retail
CPU Coolers: Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme 120mm Heat Sink Fan
Overclocking: 3XS System Core-Logic Overclocking*10 - 20%*
Memory: 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair Dominator DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600) CAS 8-8-8-24
NVIDIA Graphics - Multi GPU SLI Options Available: 1GB XFX GTX 285 Black 690MHz GPU 240 Cores 2600MHz GDDR3, 2 selected
Power Supply Unit: 1000W Corsair HX Series Modular (Dual Graphics Cards SLI Crossfire)
System Drives: 1000 GB Samsung Spinpoint F1 7200 rpm 32MB Cache

Solid State Drives: 120GB OCZ Core Series V2 SSD (Read 170MB s Write 98MB s)

Floppy Drive Flash Card Readers & Writers: Scan Black Floppy Disk & Internal Combo All in 1 Card Reader
DVD Writer: Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±R 12x DVD±DL DVD+RW x8 -RW x6
Blu Ray Reader Writer: LG GGC-H20L - Super Multi DVD Writer & Blu-Ray + HD-ROM Reader
Sound Card: Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional - PCI-E (x1)


Case Cooling Fans: 120mm Akasa Amber Case Fan Ultra Quiet and Long life with NO LEDs
Lighting Effects: Sharkoon 4" Blue CCFL 2in1 Kit, 2 selected
Operating system: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64Bit

TFT Monitor: 27" Dell 2709W UltraSharp Widescreen LCD 1920x1200 3000:1

My question - am I better keeping to the SSD 120GB (fast & quiet but shorter lifespan) or swapping this for a 300GB Raptor (bigger, still fast, longer shelf life) - I've heard that these can be v. noisy though?

I wouldn't want my OS on the SSD but if I went for the Raptor I could put it on there - comments welcome?

PS - thanks Philipp for sorting out the monitor switch

Can't wait to get - hopefully before Easter - so can spend 4 solid days giving it a good work out

[toolsong]

Hello

I wouldn't want my OS on the SSD

1) That is exactly what you should be doing
2) This new SSD from OCZ should be faster http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=948463

Have a read of this excellent article http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531 and this thread http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...ies-ssd-2.html

[transylvanic]

I have a couple of questions, did you buy an overclocking service? If so why? The whole point of overclocking is getting more for your money, if you actually pay for it, you rather devalue the whole purpose.

Secondly, have you ever used a 27" monitor for longer than a minute? I have a 22" one and feel overwhelmed by its sheer size. It might be awesome for gameplay where you are sitting back from it, but you'll end up wishing you had a smaller screen for word processing and web browsing.

You seem to have gone for the most expensive option in most categories, can I ask what your total price is? you've also mentioned that your case cooling fans have no LEDs, but no mention of the motherboard!
---
Here's my advice, take it as what it is, just some shmuck's opinion.

1. Can the 285s. You are spending £609. 49 on that SLI solution. Alternatively, you can have:
a) 2x HD 4870 512MB for £287.24 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512MB...VI-I-HDTV-HDCP, or
b) 2x HD 4870 1GB for £340.14 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1Gb-S...MHz-PCIE-2xDVI

Both solutions will likely give you indistinguishable performance from your original setup and save you plenty of money.

2. Downgrade to XP, if you can.

3. Get a Raptor for your system drive, say like a 75GB one. In fact, I have one of those for sale! Shameless, I know. PM me if you are interested, I'd still advise a small but fast drive for your system. SSDs are generally used for their cooler quieter operation, but if you have another HD in the case, that becomes kind of irrelevant since you're still going to be hearing a hard drive working.

[ITB1981]

Hi Ya

Thanks for the info - will have a look thru

[ITB1981]

Transylvanic

Yes you can OC yourself - but I would prefer to let the pro's do it - they have record of doing a really good job and can test it more thoroughly than I ever could.

On the the monitor front - you have to go for the old saying - big is beautiful - 22" is way too small and the rez would be not be as good - so for gaming / movies etc it has to be the 27"er (if your desk is big enough!!)

I'm not big fan of the 4870x2 - noisy, hot & poor driver support, not as stable at GTX 285

The board is an Asus P6T Deluxe - and with regard price it's bit like when speaking to women - you should never ask their age

Thanks for your thoughts on the SSD Vs Raptor

[Infinite]

SSD is superior. And why would you recommend a 8 year old OS?

[transylvanic]

And why would you recommend a 8 year old OS?

Because I recently had to delete some program files while optimising a Vista machine. You get three prompts to authorise the delete of an empty folder. That's just one of very many "extra fat" moments one gets in Vista.

Apart from its limit on addressing memory, XP has zero shortcomings. It's mature software, compatible with everything, and above all it's lean.

[Vadim]

yep, keep the SSD and have the OS on it - do regular backups via acronis and you will never look back

[PeterStoba]

SSD with heads aligned and some tweaks is alot better than a hdd, especially for working purposes and general "speediness".

Vista is also perfect, nothing wrong with it once you've disabled UAC

[Philipp]

Seems I have missed this thread.....

ITB1981 ill get onto it tomorrow morning, a few notes stick with the SSD they are the future having had the pleasure of playing about with many of systems with them in, I can honestly say the instant access is the best thing since sliced bread!!!

It’s your call on the over clocking, I however think it’s a bargain 2.6Ghz chip clocked at 3.6 fully covered under warranty

Ill add more tomorrow

Have a good evening

[matty-hodgson]

definitely go for the SSD, even with just 1 SSD it's a totally different kettle of fish as compared to a HD.

[ITB1981]

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts on SSD Vs Raptor FYI have made the call to with a SSD

but is ok to run registry cleanup s/w on a SSD or this a no no?

[starfry]

Just read this thread, very interesting thoughts on SSD. I was going to order a raptor but I think I may go for the 120Gb SSD instead.

I presume these just plug in replacements for hard dfives - that they look and feel like a normal hard drive to the OS (i.e. no special drivers are required...) ?

[starfry]

I found a very interesting article by AnandTech that describes SSDs and gives the view that bigger is not always better. It would appear that the larger drives on the scan site (the OCZ ones) use an inferior controller and do not perform as well as the Intel X25-M drive, which is smaller but more expensive.

The article is here if you are interested.

[ITB1981]

Hi Starfry

Thanks for the info - as the article states it's always going to be a bit of play off of out & out performance (intel) Vs price / performance (OCZ Vertex), I believe the lastest Vertex controllers are much improved and whilst it does not give you pole position in the SSD grand prix it deffinately puts you right up towards the front of the grid Vs mechanical drives.

I should be getting delivery of my 3XS system this week and will post my comments on how well the OCZ performs once I have lived with it for a bit

[Bismark]

If you are seriously considering an SSD you really should read the article on "Long-term performance analysis of Intel Mainstream SSDs" on PC Perspective's web site:

(Cannot post the URL because my post count is not high enough yet )

Having read this commentary (just the sort of detailed stuff that I love...), I decided that the extra speed of an SSD was not worth the hassle of the additional 'maintenance' required to keep it at that speed... but I'm primarily a business user; if I was an 'enthusiast', I would take the hit and go for the SSD.

Your mileage may vary...